26. KEVIN-G. DEVINE
Information acquired: 2025
KEVIN-G. DEVINE is an academic who published a paper in 2018 entitled Transitory microbial habitat in the hyperarid Atacama Desert. KEVIN-G. DEVINE published this work as part of a team: Schulze-Makuch, Dirk. Here is a description of this work: Traces of life are nearly ubiquitous on Earth. However, a central unresolved question is whether these traces always indicate an active microbial community or whether, in extreme environments, such as hyperarid deserts, they instead reflect just dormant or dead cells. Although microbial biomass and diversity decrease with increasing aridity in the Atacama Desert, we provide multiple lines of evidence for the presence of an at times metabolically active, microbial community in one of the driest places on Earth. We base this observation on four major lines of evidence: (i) a physico-chemical characterization of the soil habitability after an exceptional rain event, (ii) identified biomolecules indicative of potentially active cells [e.g., presence of ATP, phospholipid fatty acids (PLFAs), metabolites, and enzymatic activity], (iii) measurements of in situ replica.